United are understood to have made a late inquiry for the exciting 25-year-old who has been told he can leave the Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala which is beset by financial difficulties.

United are desperate to bolster their attacking options ahead of the new campaign and have registered their interest in Willian.

Willian is hoping to sort out his future in the next few days and his signing could be one of the most exciting deals of the summer window and a marquee statement of intent from Liverpool, in particular.

If Liverpool captured the midfielder it would be the second most expensive deal in the club’s history after the £35m purchase of Andy Carroll from Newcastle United in Jan 2011 which was funded by the £50m sale of Fernando Torres to Chelsea.

Liverpool, however, are adamant that if they signed Willian it does not mean they will sell Luis Suarez.

Willian only moved to Anzhi in January from Shakhtar Donetsk, after talks over a club record £35m move to Spurs broke down even though Chairman Daniel Levy had travelled to Ukraine to try and close the deal.

Willian had also previously been close to a move to Chelsea and has long been admired by Spurs head coach Andre Villas-Boas who was previously in charge at Stamford Bridge.

Willian was in England last week to try and negotiate his future after he was put up for sale by Anzhi following the decision by the club’s Russian billionaire owner Suleiman Kerimov to withdraw much of his funding and offload players, transfer-listing his squad.

Willian has made no secret of the fact that he would like to play in the Premier League and Liverpool want to improve their goalscoring power having missed out on Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who moved from Shakhtar to Borussia Dortmund, and striker Diego Costa who has signed a new contract at Atletico Madrid even though the Anfield club met the release clause in the Brazilian’s previous deal.

Sources close to the move suggested yesterday that Liverpool was Willian’s most likely destination given how strongly they are pushing to close the transfer but that he would be open to a move to either Spurs or United.

Liverpool are facing competition. Willian is on the list of creative players – along with Roma’s Erik Lamela – that Villas-Boas and technical director Franco Baldini want to add to the Spurs squad as they sense an opportunity to challenge for honours.

Spurs have been extremely busy in the transfer market and yesterday finally confirmed the signing of French international midfielder Etienne Capoue for £8.6m from Toulouse. The 25-year-old is the club’s fourth major signing of the summer after moves for Paulinho, Nacer Chadli and Roberto Soldado while Spurs have are also undertaking a raft of sales.

United are considering signing two midfielders this summer – a creative player and an attacking, goalscoring player and are continuing their pursuit of Barcelona’s Cesc Fabregas despite his public declaration that he does not want to leave.

However United would not be chasing the deal had they not had encouragement from Fabregas and his advisers although despite their intent the chances of securing the Spanish international remain slim.

Despite the fact that the £22m buy-out clause in Marouane Fellaini’s contract at Everton expired at the end of last month – meaning they would have to bid more – United remained convinced they will be able to sign the Belgian international if they want to. A £12m offer for another Everton player, left back Leighton Baines, also remains on the table.